


Upon The Wings Of Black Butterflies

by Cryptkeeper (orphan_account), VultureLovesong



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adopted Harry Potter, Animagus Harry Potter, Butterfly Effect, Harry Potter Abandoned by Dursleys, Hogwarts is Home, Inconsequential Things With Profound Effects, Independent Harry Potter, M/M, Magically Powerful Harry Potter, Mentor Voldemort, Name Changes, Not So Evil Voldemort, Orphan Harry Potter, Prodigy Harry Potter, Red-Haired Harry Potter, Rich Harry Potter, Sane Voldemort, Slytherin Harry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-08 17:36:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5506739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Cryptkeeper, https://archiveofourown.org/users/VultureLovesong/pseuds/VultureLovesong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The shorthand is the Butterfly Effect. A butterfly can flap its wings in Peking and in Central Park you get rain instead of sunshine. ~ Ian Malcolm</p><p>Sometimes it is the most inconsequential things that have the most effect on a life, and everyone knows that one life, no matter how small, can change the world.</p><p>Adopted By VultureLovesong</p>
            </blockquote>





	Upon The Wings Of Black Butterflies

**Upon The Wings Of Black Butterflies by KissTheBoogeyman**

**Chapter One ~ Inconsequential But Profound**

** **

Sometimes it is the most inconsequential things, things you would not expect to have much impact considering how small a thing they are, that have the most effect on a life. The ripple effect from a single insignificant thing can throw an entire world off balance, as is the case in this instance. A cause and effect scenario where the cause is completely dwarfed in the wake of it's effects. One change, one unimportant thing, and everything is profoundly affected in it's wake. This is what is known as The Butterfly Effect. In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state.

Here is a simple example. Our cause is this. A bug flies up a King's nose. Hardly important news, but in this case it is world changing. Our effects? The bug in his nose is a shock that causes him to flail and step back, which in turn makes him step on a tack, which sends him over the banister causing his death, and with no heir or wife at that time, his kingdom falls to his cousin, who is little more than a tyrannical dictator, who's first act as king is too try and take over the world, sending the whole world into a long war and eventually causing the end of this unnamed kingdom, all because a bug flies up a King's nose. A smaller but still profound change is demonstrated in this scenario, to use a quote that I find to be a rather useful and easily understood way of putting it. A butterfly can flap its wings in Peking and in Central Park you get rain instead of sunshine.

So, you see, sometimes it is the smallest thing that causes the biggest effects, as is the case in this scenario.

Hadrian "Harry" James Potter is born with red hair.

This must not seem like an important thing to make note of, but as we all must be aware by now, the smallest thing can change everything.

So, when Harry is born, he is an exact copy of his mother, nary a trace of James Potter in him. Of course nothing in his life is effected overly much by the color of his hair for the first fifteen months of his life, other than his father being secretly suspicious of his early date of birth and ordering quite an extensive list of tests behind his wife's back to be sure that Hadrian is indeed his son. Lily would never know of his doubts, and they would all be better for it. Most of the changes happen after his parents are killed by Voldemort on the last night of October 1981. Severus Snape is the first one on the scene after the fact, stepping over the corpse of a man he views as his nemesis, and running up to the nursery to cry over the dead body of the woman he loved, the childhood friend he pushed away nearly six years prior. When he sees Harry in his crib he does not see him as a copy of the man he hated, but as a copy of the woman he loved. And so, when the pops of aparation and panicking shouts come shortly after his arrival, Severus Snape bundles the child into his cloak, and aparates to the safest place he knows.

Now, again, in this case there is not much of a change. Dumbledore still has the former Death Eater make an unbreakable vow to protect the child of the woman he loves, Sirius Black still runs after Peter Pettigrew, and the now famous baby is sent to live with his only living relative, his aunt Petunia, the sister of his mother. Only, his too red hair and too green eyes remind Petunia too much of her beautiful sister, who she did not like in any stretch of the imagination, but that did not mean she did not love her or that she could stand loosing her. He would be a daily reminder that her last words to her sister were that she never wanted to see her or her family again. Petunia could not stand such a reminder every day of her life, so she left the child swaddled on the doorstep of an orphanage in the same manner she found him in, with only a piece of paper bearing his name and birth date strung around his neck with a piece of twine.

Something so simple as the color of his hair has Harry James Potter growing up in an orphanage, always wondering if it will close one day like many others have been doing, and if he will be shipped to one of those new Foster Homes he hears the matron so disdainfully whisper about to her Wednesday book club. He grows up a very smart boy, since like many others in the orphanage he is pushed to do his very best in absolutely everything he does. Harry has grown up wondering why his parents abandoned him, wondering if he somehow disappointed them unknowingly as a baby, so he strives to be the least disappointing child in his orphanage. He works the hardest on everything, from his studies to his chores, and at six years old he is already hailed a prodigy, earning a grand reputation for the orphanage. But orphanages are closing all over, and by the 90's they will all have been replaced by foster homes, and Saint Mary's Orphanage is no exception to the rule. As a woman who hates the very idea of foster care houses taking over the orphanages,  the matron of the closing orphanage hosts a party if sorts for people looking to adopt to spite the bureaucrats who are forcing her doors shut, hoping if her children are all adopted before they can be shipped all over to foster homes, it can stand as a kick in the teeth, her last act of rebellion before her orphanage closes and the cancer takes her.

This is what makes Saint Mary's catch the eye of a certain family looking to adopt, drawn in by the grand party like a moth to flame. Harry's reputation as a polite child prodigy is what causes them to take note of him, but that is not what causes them to make up their minds and take him home. The woman, Countess Madeline White, is a spoiled woman with an eye for beautiful things. She is a collector, only encouraged by her husband buying her as many lavish and stunning things to surround herself with as she desires. He can not deny her anything, including a child despite her being barren, which is their reasoning for being in the orphanage in the first place. Harry catches the Baroness's attentions because of his looks. He is a beautiful child even at six. Sure at a glance he is a little too thin from the lack of food, and poorly dressed with his taped up glasses and baggy clothes, and his hair is perpetually messy. But he is pale skinned like a porcelain doll, with rich dark red hair the color of wine, and eyes so bright they look like his irises were painted with candy apple ink, and Countess White is first and foremost a collector of beautiful things. One look at his fairy doll looks has Count Benjamin White signing the papers to take him home almost immediately as a gift for his lovely wife.

We won't pretend he has a wonderful fairy tale life in which his parents are kind and loving, but he is not abused and he is cared for well. In fact, his life has all the potential to be wonderful, but his parents are loveless people who more often than not ignore their son to the point he often wonders if they actually have forgotten he exists at all. He was adopted because of his looks, to be treated more like a glass doll on a shelf than a child as he is. Some could argue he was brought up like a prince, for his adoptive parents are very rich and all he has to do is ask for something and it is his, but Hadrian would counter that he has been raised as a prized trophy, only ever paid attention to when his parents are in the mood to show off, and his description is much more apt.

His adopted father is cold. He is rarely around, usually only seeing his son at supper, and even that is a rare occurance. His wife is around no more than he is, and when she is she is usually fawning over her newest gifts. Harry grows up calling his parents Sir and Ma'am, answering to Hadrian White instead of Harry Potter, and being passed from one busy servant to the next, many of which see him as more of a nuisance than a child to care for. He grows trying his best to stay out of the way and trying not to disappoint anyone. He has the best tutors in all of the United Kingdom teaching him in everything from general school courses to dancing and etiquette to obscure subjects and things that just interest him. If this means he spends his whole life locked away in a grand castle in Kent with no one his own age to talk to, never having time to do anything fun just for the sake of it, then so be it. At least he has a family.

Considering that they live in the same house, it takes an embarrassingly long time for the Whites to realize that strange and unusual things happen around their son very often. In fact the first time they notice it is when the Baroness knocks over her prided Chinese vase and seven year old Hadrian freezes it in mid-air before it can shatter. For a few weeks they take an actual interest in the boy they now share their house with. They ask about other incidents and revel in the stories of things like his matron's hair turning blue, the flowers becoming healthy and blooming after he touches them even though they were just seconds ago dead, him falling off the roof of the orphanage only to disappear in mid-air and reappear in the kitchen, his arm healing too quickly after he broke it, and him talking to snakes. They do research and they take the news of him being a wizard fairly well. Life does not change overly much with the revelation. The Baron and Baroness hire suitable magical tutors to help their son learn control over his powers, and find better tutors who know of magic so that they don't have to worry about some servant gossiping over his strange powers, and continue on with their lives like there has been no change. Hadrian grows up with the best magical and muggle tutors money can buy, knowing that he has to be the best at everything or he will be a disappointment to his parents.

Hadrian's eleventh birthday and the subsequent letter inviting him into Hogwarts comes without much fanfare. The White's throw their annual birthday gala, and Hadrian spends the night dancing with strangers and pretending that he isn't completely uncomfortable with the amounts of people as he always is. The letter comes that night, addressed to Harry Potter instead of Hadrian White like it is supposed to be, and by the next day Hadrian has to take the train on his own to get his school supplies because his parents and the servants are all too busy to see him off. It isn't like it is his first time in the alley though, so it is not like he actually needs them, but some company would have been nice.

Diagon Alley makes Hadrian very uncomfortable to be honest. He has spent five years of his life pretty much locked inside without company, and even before then he never really had much company at the orphanage. Everyone bustles about like they are on a mission, or otherwise crowd the street to chat with friends or acquaintances, and it is quite honestly unnerving enough without the added fact that he often ends up running into some family acting warm and loving like his dream family from back when he was an orphan. Sometimes he still dreams of that warm family, but he does love his parents, for all that they are always cold, like they are actually dolls like he often feels he is supposed to be.

Hadrian gets his shopping done as quickly and efficiently as possible, in a way that means he has to talk to as little people as possible, and he can get out before anyone can notice that he is Harry Potter, which is the last thing he feels he needs. He does get stuck in Madam Malkins with a particularly stubborn boy his age, who does not seem to get that Hadrian does not want to have a conversation, and his polite monosyllabic answers to his endless rants are not to show he is interested. Hadrian has never been good with striking up a conversation, and this is a prime example of that.

By the time he leaves the alley and gets home it is already dark.

His parents don't join him for dinner.

Nothing has changed.


End file.
